Day 72 - Stewart, BC/Hyder, AK

Today I hope we get to see grizzly bears. Susan is aware that we have to be at Fish Creek around 6 or 6:15 am to possibly have a chance to see them. We arrive at 7 and just missed our chance at seeing one. It had come, caught a fish, and left 5 minutes before. All we saw was the bear scat left behind on the road. Hopefully another will come by. So we pay our admission $5 U.S. or $6 CDN and we wait. It was pretty cool out. I know because Susan kept reminding me. She does not like the cold.

Fish Creek is located in the far southeastern part of the United States's largest national forest, the Tongass. Spanning 500 miles and encompassing 16.7 million acres of land and 11,000 miles of shoreline, the Tongass National Forest is the largest temperate rain forest in the world. Mild temperatures and an abundance of rain characterizes temperate rain forests. Each year more than 16 feet of rain falls in some areas of the Tongass. The forests of the Tongass are chiefly comprised of Sitka spruce, western and mountain hemlock, and red and yellow cedar.

Forest service employees are on site 6 am to 10 pm daily to provide information about the bears and salmon, enforce site rules, and to answer any questions you may have. Grizzly and black bears come to feed on the spawning chum, coho, and pink salmon during July to September each year. Forest service help provide a safe environment for people to watch the bears.

The area is so beautiful with or without the bears. I watched a black mink cross into this pond.

The raised boardwalk allows the viewing of bears without interfering with them, safety for both.

Chum Salmon

Otter Family

Fish Creek

Common Merganser

After an hour Susan was getting impatient and cold. So we headed back to the trailer but not before we stopped to take some pictures.

Three kilometers from Stewart is the town of Hyder, Alaska. Hyder bills itself as the “friendliest ghost town in Alaska”. Today, Hyder had a year round population of 60.

Canada Customs in background